I have written about one of today’s characters before.  Twice, in fact.  I wrote a story about his parents……Watching So Many Children Die, and I wrote a story about one of his sons……..Finding a Job and a Wife in the Big City.  Today would be the 139th anniversary of his marriage, so I chose to write about him today.

His name was Peter Sandler, and his bride was Margaretha Boxdorfer.  Peter was not the first Sandler to marry a Boxdorfer.  His older brother, William, had married Margaretha’s older sister, Anna, eight years earlier.  Peter and Margaretha were married on November 26, 1878 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville.  Here is their marriage record.  It spilled out over two pages in the original record so I had to make two images.

I am going to start with the bride.  Margaretha was the daughter of Gottlieb and Barbara (Muench) Boxdorfer.  She was born on April 2, 1857 and baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg.  Margaretha had older siblings who had been born in Maryland and Ohio.  She was the first to be born in Missouri, which indicates that the family had moved to Perry County not long before she was born.  Her father was a farmer.

The groom, Peter Sandler, was born on June 18, 1846, which made him 11 years older than his bride.  He was the son of John Michael and Margaretha (Lang) Sandler.  Peter was also baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Freidenberg.  His father was also a farmer.  However, farming was not to become Peter’s occupation.  It is said that he lived in several locations early in his life where he was able to learn the blacksmith trade.  The 1870 census shows him living in Glasgow, Missouri working as a blacksmith in the John Koester household.  Here is a map showing the location of Glasgow, Missouri along the Missouri River near Boonville and Columbia.

Mr. Koester was a wagon maker, and he apparently hired several blacksmiths as part of his business.

Living away from Perryville may have saved Peter’s life.  As was told in that previous post about his parents, several of his siblings died in the early 1870’s because of disease.  Here is a portion of an Ancestry.com family history of the Sandler family (minus Peter).

1873 was an especially bad year in the Sandler household.

That brings us up to 1878 when Peter married Margaretha.  Here are photos of these two when they were married.

I think these two images are from the same wedding photograph.

Peter built a blacksmith shop and ran that business in Perryville during the rest of his lifetime.  The Sandlers would have 8 children.  Peter’s obituary from Findagrave.com tells more about his life.

Peter died in 1932; Margaretha died in 1839.  Here is Margaretha’s obituary.

Peter and Margaretha are buried together in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville.

As you can tell from their obituaries, Peter and Margaretha served their family, their community, and their church faithfully and well.

I have no idea if I am right about this, but there is a Sides Metal Recycling business located on a Sandler Drive in North Perryville just off Highway 61.  Maybe this was the site of Peter’s blacksmith business.  Or perhaps that street was named after someone in this Sandler family.  Maybe someone with some knowledge of Perryville history can help me out.